The new year has only just begun, and we have already seen some massive games played on two of the most popular poker live streams.
Hustler Casino Live started the new year with some massive $100/200 games that involved the likes of Peter, Mariano, Wesley, Mike X, and Henry, all iconic players with a huge following among the poker fans.
The games got a bit smaller as January went on, but we still saw plenty of $25/50 showdowns and some huge 6-figure pots along the way.
Over at Poker at the Lodge, Doug Polk took Notorious TJ on in a heads up match, while the usual suspects like T1000, Cinnabon, and Big Daddy Chaz kept the ring games going with plenty of cash on the tables.
We take a look back at January action and recap the three sickest pots played on live poker streams this month, with some big name players involved in the action.
Top Hands in January:
- $93,400 pot won by Mike X after a massive bad beat
- $115,700 pot goes to Peter thanks to a massive hero call
- $31,875 pot for Saul after his opponent makes a bad call
Mariano Gets Unlucky Against Mike X
One of the craziest hands of January 2025 happened in very first big game we saw this year, as the likes of Mike X, Mariano, Peter, and Francisco took to the felt.
More than five hours into the game, the Argentine poker vlogger got into an ideal spot in a straddled pot. With the $200 straddle on, Peter decided to bump it up to $3,000, a raise that was promptly called by Mike X in the cutoff.
Mariano woke up with Q♦Q♣ in an ideal squeeze spot and made it $17k as if he was trying to push his opponents out and buy the pot.
Peter got rid of his A♥5♠ quite swiftly, but Mike X decided that Mariano was likely out of line and pushed all-in for his stack of $45,200 holding just K♦10♦.

Mariano could do little else but call with pocket queens and $17k already committed to the pot, only to find out he was in great shape as a 72% favorite before they decided to run the board twice.
To Mariano’s great disappointment, the first board ran Q♥A♠J♥4♣3♣, giving his opponent a straight and killing one of his set outs in the process.
The second board brought two kings for Mike X, who made an uncharacteristically aggressive play in this spot and got incredibly lucky to scoop a $93,400 pot to start his 2025.
Peter Makes the Difficult Hero Call
Interestingly enough, the second big hand on our January list started the same way as the first, with Peter raising it up to $2k with A♥5♣.
Henry, who held the button in this hand, decided to bump it up to $6k with just J♣7♠, a decision that was partially driven by the Stand Up Game that was running.
David made the call in-between the two players holding K♥Q♥, and Peter tagged along with his off-suit ace in the hopes of connecting with the flop.
The dealer put out a flop of 2♦6♠4♣ which didn’t really improve any of the players, but gave Peter a gutshot straight draw.
Henry continued his story by firing out a $8.3k c-bet, and Peter made the call out of position with his ace-high.

While the flop continuation was somewhat standard from Peter, what came next shocked everyone. When the 8♣ turn rolled over, Henry went all-in for $40,300, more than the size of the pot.
Where most other players would have folded their hand without much deliberation, the Chinese businessman took his time and made the decision to call the bet despite holding no pair.
To everyone’s surprise, his hand was actually good and quite a substantial favorite. Henry needed to catch a jack or a seven on one of the two rivers, but failed both times, which meant the $115,700 pot was the reward Peter earned for having the courage to make such a difficult call.
Notorious TJ Overplays Pocket Jacks
The third notable hand of January 2025 comes from a recent stream on Poker at the Lodge, where a less known player by the nickname of “Bet or Call Saul” went head to head with Notorious TJ just a day after he played Doug Polk heads up.
The hand started with T1000 raising it up to $300 and both Notorious TJ and Saul making the call with J♠J♥ and K♦10♥, along with Yeled who was in the straddle position.
The dealer put out K♥6♣5♥ and it seemed that while Notorious TJ would not be losing a big pot, his decision not to 3-bet pocket jack was about to backfire.
Action checked to T1000 who optimistically decided to c-bet for $400 with just A♠10♠ into three opponents. Notorious TJ called and Saul decided to come over the top to $1,500 to protect his top pair.
Notorious TJ made the call and the two went to the 3♣ turn card which helped no one. Saul continued for $2,800, but TJ was once again unimpressed as he made another call.

The river card was the A♦, perhaps the biggest action killer of them all. Just when we expected both players to check, Saul pushed all in for his remaining $10,825, likely in an attempt to fold out a better king that TJ might be holding.
Getting only 2:1 on his money and now holding just third pair, TJ could have made the fold and lived to fight another day, but instead decided that it was time for a hero call.
Unlike Peter who made an even harder hero call in the previous hand, Notorious TJ was wrong this time around, which meant Saul would scoop one of the biggest pots in this $25/50 game at $31,875.